1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to food processing systems employing conveyor belts on which food products are deposited for process. More particularly, this invention relates to food freezing systems employing conveyor belts, such as spiral freezer systems.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Food processing systems, such as spiral food freezer systems, employ food product conveyor belts that must articulate transversely and longitudinally and are therefore subject to tensile and bending stress and forces. The extent of these stresses and forces can place severe limitations on the configuration of the system. For example, some such spiral food freezer systems can only provide an inlet section for the deposit of food products for processing of a fairly minimum length so that the strength of the conveyor belt segments that make up the conveyor belt is not exceeded. Consequently, such systems sometimes cannot accommodate long inlet sections that might be a desirable feature for some processing installations. Also, consequently, such systems might be limited in the choice of conveyor belt design and construction configurations to those that would provide a strong enough conveyor belt to withstand the stress and forces that will act on the conveyor belt.